Terrible news for Yahoo! Japan

The Economist reports that Yahoo! Japan is hurting badly after a security breach in which a large number of its auction site accounts were hijacked and used to sell sell counterfeit luxury goods:
Last month the company acknowledged the problem and agreed to reimburse users who had been charged fees relating to fraudulent transactions. This set off a stampede of further complaints, as other users scrutinised their bills. Yahoo! Japan says it does not know how so many usernames were stolen, but suggests that they may have been leaked by another website. It feebly advised users to change their passwords.
The security breach is terrible news. Users may be less inclined to use a site they no longer trust to protect their personal details. And Yahoo! Japan faces other worries. Google is catching up, revenue growth is slowing and managers are defecting to rivals. Its share price has tumbled by 50% in the past six months.
[via Gen Kanai/AngryMoose]
